I typically try not to spend a lot of time looking into a crystal ball, but a coaching client of mine asked what I thought the video production business will look like in 5, 10 and 20 years. My insight is based on how I perceive the industry with regard to society, multimedia and technology. Here’s what I have to say.

Regarding the video business in the next 5 years, I think video overall is coming back full-force. Corporate video was very popular in the 80’s but started to die down pretty significantly in the 90’s due to the emergence of CD-ROM authoring and distribution capabilities. This is also when PowerPoint hit the scene heavily in the corporate presentation environment. In my opinion, now is a great time to start a video business and with proper marketing and sales strategies, you’ll be able to really flourish in the coming 5 years.

In 10 years, I believe that bandwidth will finally catch up with High-Definition (HD) camera quality (probably before then but definitely by 10 years). Full-resolution HD videos/films will be accessible on your laptop, phones, in your cars, everywhere! The thing to always remember though is that no matter what the technology is doing, you want to remain highly focused on content creation, or storytelling. There will always be a new technology and a new group of investors willing to dump millions or even billions into the technology.

Let the big boys spend all their money on the technology. Just get real proficient at learning new technologies as they come available. Then, teach your clients how you can help them adapt the new technologies in their communications strategies. I believe that no matter how much technology changes, there will still be a need for good video producers/storytellers. In 10 years, there will be more channels than compelling content.

It will be much easier to start your own television/web network and advertisers will have an unlimited supply of choices on where to run their advertisements. Niche markets/audiences will be the key to success in a decade. If you command a high percentage of a particular market segment, you’ll be able to develop channels with content that serves that market and make a nice income selling advertising space or member subscriptions.

Note:The tools to produce videos will get cheaper and cheaper every year so it is vitally important that you position your video production business and yourself as a producer who understands business/marketing/training communications… not just video production. You will need to focus heavily on the consultation part of the video business instead of just cameras and software. There will be people who buy gear and call themselves “pros” on a daily basis but the companies that stay focused on the “strategy level of thinking” when dealing with clients will prevail.

This has worked for me so I continue to stay positioned in this manner.

In 20 years… who knows? I’m sure that video will still be a profitable business but the technology will probably be out of this world in terms of what it can do. As I’ve stated before, no matter what the technology does, their will only be a small percentage of the population that will understand how to craft a compelling and effective message. Study the technologies over the years and figure out quickly how they apply to the video business and how your clients can use them to improve their communications.

I think in 20 years, video WILL be as common and necessary as having a website or email address is today. Instead of business cards, you’ll have a video card. Instead of a brochure, you’ll have a brochure with tiny chips that can show videos right on the paper.

The above comments were all related to the corporate video industry. How will the consumer video industry fare?

The short and probably best answer is that people will always get married, have birthday parties, and need family history videos. The point is that consumer video needs will never go away. Unlike business, video needs that ebb and flow with the economy, personal video needs are ALWAYS there. There isn’t as much money to be made serving consumers but the demand will always be there.

In fact, I can’t seem to shake the thought process of developing several consumer- related video businesses that serve this unending need. (Weddings, birthdays, college sports reels, etc.) There is a lot more competition in the consumer video industry because the videos are easier to produce and the client doesn’t have the same expectations as to quality as the business customer does. The key is to develop branded products that are easy for the customer to understand and afford. Then, promote them like there is no tomorrow!

I recommend looking at two parallel plans going forward.

Focus primarily on building a video service that develops business videos but also look at serving consumer needs. In the early years of your video production business, the consumer needs often pay the bills when the video business clients go missing in action. Plus, the consumer jobs pay faster.

One of the biggest hurdles people face when trying to start their information products business is creating their own information products to sell. The prospect of writing a 90 page ebooks can be really intimidating when you are not an expert in a topic. There is a simple way to get over this fear that very few marketers are taking advantage of, which is a shame. That way is creating short reports. In this article I’ll introduce you to some of the benefits of using short reports as a basis for your information marketing business.

1.You can write a short report in a few hours. This means that slaving over a product for weeks at a time won’t be an issue anymore. How long would it take you to write 7-20 pages? If you have a clear niche and outline to start with, you can easily do it in a few hours or less.

2. The low price point means higher conversions. You can sell a 10 page report for $7 pretty easily. The price is so low that you don’t need a fancy sales letter, and you will have higher conversions because there is such a low bar to entry. Many people will buy these products on impulse because it is such a low financial commitment.

3. The supply of topics is endless. You can break down a large topic into many smaller topics to use as the basis for short reports in your information products business. For example, look in a non fiction book and notice the chapters. Each chapter can be a short report. So you can easily make 20 products out of one book! Similarly, look at a sales letters and notice the bullet points. Each one of those can be a short report. Now, think of all of the books and sales letters our there, not to mention various other sources for topics such as magazines. The topic can be very specific since the product is so short, and this results in expanding the number of potential ideas for products far beyond what you’d have for a more substantial product.

4. When other marketers are having success with their product, you can profit from their success by producing a complementary report on a similar topic. If a market has a successful product on link building techniques for example, you can product a short report on actual places where you can get high PR links. Use your imagination and piggyback on the success of others.

5. You can maximize the lifetime value of a customer. If you give your reports a theme, you can position them so that customers feel compelled to buy each report in your series. So you can have a 5 Minute Guide to Traffic, and a 5 Minute Guide to Product Creation, and a 5 Minute Guide to List Building, for example. In order to not feel as if they are missing part of the series, many customers will automatically buy all of the products in the series. This is a sure fire way to get tons of repeat sales for your information products business.

During the down times of the economy, you’ll find it difficult to get a loan from banks when you need it to fund your video production business. That’s because they believe that you won’t have enough resources to pay for the loan. That’s just how things work and unless you learn how to go with the flow, you won’t be productive on your video business.

It is challenging to have this mindset once you are experiencing the effects of a bad economy. However, here are some things you can do to alleviate its impact.

1. Target industries that are not influenced by the effects of the economy.

These industries may be health organizations (people are in constant need of medical attention), high-level education (education is always in demand), government (they never get affected by the economy), religious organizations (they always have funds).

It doesn’t mean that these industries become successful during a bad economic situation. However, they do better than any other industry which indicates that you won’t lose business when everyone else in the corporate world declines your projects.

2. Think about ways to get more money when everything is doing well.

It’s the time of the year when banks are ready to lend money to anyone who goes to them. This is the perfect time to decrease the money you spend every month on certain things. Remind yourself not to get additional expenses that will pull a bigger part of your savings. You will need to have cash reserves once the economy turns and you wouldn’t like to spend any more than what you usually do when your video production profit gets low.

3. Save when there’s a chance to.

People just have the inclination to buy a lot of things when things are doing well. During the times when people splurge at a shopping spree, you should seriously focus on selling. Do everything you can to sell and market during the day and produce that at night or when the weekend arrives. Get the chance to spend more time on your sales while everyone is busy spending their money on purchases.

4. When you’ve earned so much and would like to spend it on something, remember that business tragedy is inevitable.

It’s undeniable that problems with the business are something that happens to any entrepreneur. To ignore this fact will lead to unfortunate circumstances for your production company.

The economy is greater than you or any video production business out there. To keep up with it, you should be ready with what it can give you that’s why it’s important to work hard and earn while the economy is at its peak. Focus on selling and disregard spending. Make clever decisions about your finances. Soon, the good things you do during this height will conquer the negativity that the bad economy has brought.

As an online marketer, you can see how many thousands of information products are created to serve this niche alone. Some of the most successful online marketers make their living by promoting courses and e-books that teach various internet marketing skills. You can find information products, though, on every imaginable subject, so the field is wide open. You can also find plenty of info products on topics such as “dating tips” and “dessert recipes,” as well as thousands of others. One of the main functions of the web is to deliver information to people, and this will always be the case. If you’ve ever considered entering the information products business, the following three benefits of doing this might be all the convincing you need.

1) When you sell information products online, you have no guarantee of success, and this is, of course, true of any business. Yet failure in this case, which usually results from not doing proper preparation, doesn’t have to be costly, so it’s easy to try again. Whereas with an offline business you might be investing your life savings, there are many low cost and free online marketing strategies.

In other words, you can create lots of info products in various niches and proceed with the ones that are successful. Testing out new ideas with info products is a walk in the park. One of the best aspects of an information business is that digital products, unlike physical ones, don’t require any shipping or storage. This solves the biggest hurdle businesses face when starting out, which is having to take care of these recurring costs. Your info product can be downloaded by your customers right away, without having to wait – instant gratification!

2) Information products can be created in a single day when you know how. The fact is, experienced information marketers do this consistently.

3) When you have this business model in place, you can simply release products when you want and sell them to the people on your email list. What’s more, when you have your list of buyers, your market research becomes as simple as shooting them an email and asking what they want. As you release more products, you’ll eventually be seen as an authority in your area of interest.

As we’ve seen, if you’re committed to doing what it takes to succeed, selling information products can be the ideal business. Some of the largest and most profitable info product businesses that are raking in huge profits today were started from scratch. It’s not necessary to understand everything perfectly to get started.

The more action you take, the easier it will be to know what to do next. All you have to do is find a topic that excites you, do some research and launch an information product!